Ones to watch: The 5 most influential senior leaders of fast-growing organisations

To be an effective business leader in this day and age, you need to bring more to the (boardroom) table than the now outdated traditional leadership traits.

In our highly uncertain and rapidly changing business landscape, leaders need to be agile, flexible and fast in their decision-making.

To pinpoint some of the UK’s most influential senior business leaders right now, we asked our team of well-connected executive search experts for their top picks.

Here’s the top 5 most influential senior leaders of fast-growing organisations for Q1 of 2019, according to our executive search experts:

Adam Williams – Chief Revenue Officer, Takumi

At the beginning of 2018, Adam Williams took on the role of Chief Revenue Officer at the fast-growing start-up, Takumi.

Takumi is a leading Instagram influencer marketing platform designed to maximise opportunities for creators and give brands and agencies access to the best creative talent, and their online communities.

Working with over 4,000 influencers, Takumi manages influencer relationships and delivers impactful Instagram campaigns for some of the world’s biggest agencies and brands, including Pernod Ricard, Nike, Coca Cola, Visa and Estée Lauder. The platform is taking a lead in the industry alongside regulatory bodies to uphold advertising standards and combat influencer fraud.

In Adam’s role as CRO, the former UK Managing Director for Spotify is responsible for driving revenue across the Takumi business.

Amali de Alwis – Chief Executive Officer, Code First: Girls

“Tech shouldn't just be a boys club” – that’s the motto Code First: Girls have built their award-winning business around.

In the UK, only 15% of employees in STEM jobs are held by women, according to recent figures by PwC. To increase the number of women in tech, the social enterprise works closely with organisations including Bank of America Merrill Lynch, Goldman Sachs and Trainline.

Since joining the organisation as CEO in 2015, Amali de Alwis has played a crucial role in helping the organisation deliver over £5 million of free coding education in the past three years, and teaching 8,000 women to code for free. In recognition for her contribution to women in tech, Amali was recently awarded an MBE and was named Most Influential Woman in UK IT 2018 by Computer Weekly.

Marc Warner – Chief Executive Officer, Faculty

Up until recently, artificial intelligence (AI) has been restricted to the realms of science fiction, but Faculty are one of the few firms that are making AI a practical reality for many organisations.

Armed with the tagline: “Artificial intelligence for everyone”, Faculty empower organisations to become more data-driven by providing software, skills and advisory solutions.

Since launching the firm in 2015, CEO Marc Warner and his rapidly growing team have worked with a number of high-profile industry heavyweights including EasyJet, BBC and Tesco and were included in The Tech Track’s Ones to Watch by The Sunday Times. They also made headlines recently for developing a tool for the UK government that can detect extremist content.

Tabitha Goldstaub co-founded CognitionX in 2015 – an AI advice platform dedicated to bringing greater clarity to, and accelerating the adoption of, AI across all organisations from global enterprises to startups, and helping ensure a safe and responsible transition to an AI-driven society.

Nowadays, Tabitha is also the chair and spokesperson of the UK government’s AI Council, a new industry body tasked with increasing growth in the AI sector and promoting its adoption in other sectors of the economy.

Tabitha also runs CogX, one of the largest gatherings of AI experts in the world, led the team who wrote the London: the AI Growth Capital of Europe report, is the co-founder of Future Girl Corp and acts as an adviser to Founders 4 Schools.

As the UK’s largest property portal, Rightmove has been enabling buyers and renters to find the best property on the market since the turn of the millennia.

But since going public back in 2006, its innovative property search platform has revolutionised the property buying and renting process for millions of Brits.

James Stewart made the move to Rightmove at the end of 2018 where he oversees a team of technology, sales, commercial, customer and data experts to drive success across the firm’s commercial, overseas and data services businesses.

Previously, James worked in senior leadership roles for a range of high-profile organisations, including EBay and PayPal.

Our team of executive search experts have senior-level contacts in all different organisations, sectors and industries throughout the UK. If you’re looking to appoint a new leader, get in touch today.

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